Topic: New set of graphics
toptopple
Topic Opener
Joined: 2013-10-30, 07:11
Posts: 156  At home in WL-forums |
Posted at: 2013-10-30, 07:24
Not sure if I am missing some feature, but what I think the game is missing most is a set of graphics with larger renderings. I played for some hours and my eyes are soaring. My computer display has 1920x1080 pixels which is now a standard. Game development seem to not have copped with increase resolution and consequently display's gotten "miniaturised" on the screen. Best set would be a switch (keyboard Fx key or other) that lets user change pre-rendered graphic set "on the fly" during game. Other solution could be a software rendered "zoom" feature where enlargened graphic sets are created by some program code. Would still suffice if this is only possible in game setup settings, but a solution there I find urgent! 
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PkK
Joined: 2012-01-06, 11:19
Posts: 236  Widelands-Forum-Junkie |
Posted at: 2013-10-30, 14:58
Indeed, with screen resolution increasing, the zooming feature request (https://bugs.launchpad.net/widelands/+bug/536461) gains in importance. Philipp
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toptopple
Topic Opener
Joined: 2013-10-30, 07:11
Posts: 156 At home in WL-forums |
Posted at: 2013-10-31, 11:57
This function is clearly no luxury, instead I deem it as one of the top priority issues! There is one basic thing to decide. Should the "Zoom" function be realised as a) discrete sets of images representing resolution levels for graphic display b) free scalable zoom trickstery in OpenGL rendering machine based on one set of images There are pros and cons for each solution but I expect best results from option a). This is because there is less technology involved (hence less prone to error) and each zoom level gives a clear picture, which is not guaranteed by option b). Work-to-do: For both paths a new rendering of building models is required. Perhaps several images have to be "re-invented" because they cannot be blown-up by scaling in the editor. It likely is a good idea to make some testing experiments before a final descision is taken which path to choose. Interesting project!
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SirVer
Joined: 2009-02-19, 14:18
Posts: 1445  One Elder of Players Location: Germany - Munich |
Posted at: 2013-10-31, 18:37
I disagree. For multiple reasons. See below.
Doing a poor job of a) is probably doing ~2 month fulltime for a graphic artists and at least a few days fulltime for a coder. You have to touch ever graphic that is displayed on the map - that means a lot of 3d models need to be made nicer and rerendered, the rendering pipeline must be updated to have support for two resolutions (at least) and then there are a bunch of 2d images that have no model - terrains, some of the trees, some of the doodads on the map. They all need improvements. The coder has to add resolution agnostics into the engine, it is used in some places already - but this is clearly manageable. This would also blow up memory usage of Widelands and size of downloadable archive - a prize worth paying of course. b) is simpler - you only have to add code. I guess this could be implemented in ~ 1 week fulltime for a coder. However I do not see this topic as very important right now. For one, you can have a nice approximation of b) by playing fullscreen and lowering your resolution - or by lowering the resolution of your OS. Also, the future of gaming (and therefore of Widelands) is on tablets - the desktop is dying and it is dying as a gaming platform very quickly indeed. (Logical) Resolution on tablets have peaked already and are unlikely to go much higher at this point in time - and Widelands should be very playable on the resolutions they offer. tl;dr: I think this is a lot of effort, but the result is probably not as important as you think it to be. It is also a boring task for programmer and artist (and we have no artist right now), so do not hold your breath to see this happen unless you want to do it yourself.
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Mars
Joined: 2009-03-28, 09:26
Posts: 118  Likes to be here Location: Germany |
Posted at: 2013-10-31, 19:12
I vote for option c) ! Use old-school pixel art,e.g. reduce the current resolution and decrease and color depth of images ( and in no case use antialiasing! ). You now probably think I am absolutely crazy, but take a look at this Microsoft Research Paper about Depixelizing Pixel Art http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/kopf/pixelart/ Fantastic vector graphics out of low resolution pixel art, really fantastic! Edited: 2013-10-31, 19:13
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toptopple
Topic Opener
Joined: 2013-10-30, 07:11
Posts: 156 At home in WL-forums |
Posted at: 2013-11-02, 19:52
I understand the reluctance to build a new set of graphics! I wouldn't support view that Desktop is dying out and probably never will. But anyway, perhaps a minimum improvement could still be realised by enlarging window based display. If player doesn't have to strain his eyes in high resolution environment on identifying images and text of overviews (warehouse overview) and text (messages and !story boards) he 'd probably be grateful.
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Adamant
Joined: 2012-10-11, 15:21
Posts: 180 Widelands-Forum-Junkie Location: Alemania |
Posted at: 2013-11-03, 15:53
Proposal of WalkingCanvas allow easily zooming that Way via simple Scaling. btw! Ivan the Terrible is dead .. Genghis Khan is dead .. and I do not feel well, too.
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Krondor
Joined: 2013-08-28, 07:55
Posts: 1  Just found this site |
Posted at: 2013-11-05, 10:36
A zoom feature can be nice but its not necessary, I rather would appreciate and vote to have a Rotate feature, while having several buildings and roads on the map would be useful be able to rotate to change the view angle, especially when you want tune the roads while having some roads traffic issue to settle down.
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einstein13
Joined: 2013-07-28, 23:01
Posts: 1118 One Elder of Players Location: Poland |
Posted at: 2013-11-05, 13:32
Rotate feature needs 3D graphics. Widelands are more 2D than 3D. Am I wright? For me this feature is not necessary. Hidden flags and hidden buildings are clickable, so I don't need that. einstein13
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dershrimp
Joined: 2012-05-11, 14:43
Posts: 47  Pry about Widelands |
Posted at: 2013-11-05, 18:56
The cool thing about widelands is the simple graphic! I don't want neither rotation nor zoom features nor any kind of graphic "specials". There is a reason why I never played settler III, IV,...
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